WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT MENTAL ILLNESS

Passing in many places in Africa or all over the world, you meet people with mental problems .some are in their families, others in the street result of stigmatization or not feeling comfortable of leaving home and start looking on how to be free. This life is no longer good for them and some get died there for being aggressive or in accidents. While many people ask questions about this kind of disease, others saying that they are incurable, experts try to explain the causes of mental illness, conseques and suggest related treatments.

According to www.mind.org.uk mental illness is very common but there is a great deal of controversy about what it is, what causes it, and how people can be helped to recover

. Generally, People with a mental illness can experience problems in the way they think, feel or behave. However drugs and other medical treatments are helpful for some even if for others are not. Though medical treatment may only be a part of what helps recovery, not necessarily the main part because people, themselves can offer some treatment help. It's important to remember that having a mental illness is not someone's fault, it's not a sign of weakness, and it's not something to be ashamed of.

Common mental illness.

Talking with health experts, articles published in newspapers you find various types of mental illness, you may also be astonished to find symptoms that you normally have but we propose you also a kind of treatments.

First of all, Depression which lowers a person’s mood and can make them feel hopeless, worthless, unmotivated and exhausted is one of them .It affect sleep, appetite and self-esteem, and interfere with daily activities.

Anxiety is an other appearing as a constant and unrealistic worry about any aspect of daily life and it may cause agitation, and sleeping problems it’s symptom include having an increased heart beat, stomach upset, muscle tension or feeling unsteady .Panic attacks at its turn, is a sudden intense fright hardening to breathe, and you feel the heart beating hard. They may have a choking sensation and a pain in the chest, and you begin to shake or feel faint. If you felt lost of thoughts control you suffer from Obsessive-compulsive disorder which normally creates unbearable nervousness. A phobia is another kind with unreasonable fear of a particular situation or object which may cause such paralyzing fear that a person may remain isolated in their own home, afraid to go out.

Other common phobias include fear of animals, heights, flying and enclosed spaces. Schizophrenia is one of the most demoralizing of all mental illnesses and that can severely interfere with someone's ability to perform everyday tasks and activities. Symptoms include hearing voices and seeing things that other people don’t see.

CAUSES

May be you and I felt attacked by one of this illness, there is still a need to know how theses are got or what is the cause and consequences of them. www.rethink.org proposes you some causes but it is astonishing that some reside in our families.

Growing up feeling uncared-for, scared of a parent, or having been sexually abused can make people highly insecure and more vulnerable to mental distress. But also being much too overprotected as a child that most families do can also put you at risk.

Being discouraged from expressing your feelings from a very early age or as a child, you may even have been punished for getting angry, crying or laughing too loudly. Feelings that are held back, and which are not expressed, affect your physical and mental health.

Traumatic events, such as the death of someone close, being a widow, orphan or longer-term struggles, such as being the victim of some form of harassment or oppression.

Your body biologically and chemistry can affect your mind. If you are frightened, it triggers the body's 'fight or flight' response to produce a hormone called adrenalin. If physical activity doesn't use up all the adrenalin produced, the body remains stressed and the mind stays over-active.

Some scientific evidence shows that one can get mental illness from the genes inherited from ancestors and parents but they emphasize that one person may be more likely than another to develop a particular problem.

Other causes include Infections linked to brain, damage and the development of mental illness, Defects in or injury to certain areas of the brain, damage during child development, poor nutrition ,exposure to toxins, the behavior of mothers during pregnancy period can have affect on how the baby's brain develops

Consequences and treatments

Apart from the causes of mental illness some consequences as explains John S. Santelli, a health expert and a professor of population and family health at Mailman School of Public Health at Columbia University, include disability, poverty, stigmatization, loss of job, death and others. John suggests something very important in the society as a remedy of this kind of illness, suggested also by the World Health Organization (WHO). “There’s much better behavioral treatments, there’s much better pharmacological treatments as well,” says Dr. Santelli, who wrote an editorial accompanying the study, published in the journal The Lancet. “We know what to do. We just need to do it. He continues.

Some of the remedy includes Psychiatrists analysis to see what is happening and what happened to see what can be done, but they are limited for the fact that each person's experience of mental distress is unique, and, especially if there are cultural, social or religious differences between doctor and patient.

In some countries there is The Community Mental Health Team (CMHT) made of social workers and health professionals, for community mental health care and community care services to help such a kind of people.

Such people with mental illness are also taken rehabilitation program where they join some centers to leave independently a short period. Hospitals provide a refuge place, shelter and protection but it can provide Medication. Depending on the diagnosis, a variety of drugs are used to help them to sleep, and to reduce complications but also not to stop their work.

Therapists and counselors and other trained people may help by providing talking treatment even if in developed countries, they can pass an electric current through the brain, under anaesthesia, even if it can lead to secondary effects including tiredness, confusion, memory loss, headaches and vomiting.

What can friends and relatives do to help someone with mental illness?

In most cases our friends and neighbors are near us, we enjoy good times together and It is we who advice and help them to go to the hospital. Primary help, listening to them not to feel alone, provide for them material help. You can improve your mental health also with Relaxation, reading books, watching movies, singing; Physical activity like sport can help you to deal with negative emotions, alleviating anxiety or depression, and boosting self-esteem. Setting goals about future not to stal jobless, express feeling openly, Facing up to problems, and find someone to talk to are other easy and available ways to anyone to keep our mental health sane. It is up to you to Judge but remember that the life can nor be sold not bought.

By Jean Louis UWONKUNDA